The present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle communication system in which a plurality of in-vehicle devices, which are installed in a vehicle, communicate with one another and to an in-vehicle relay apparatus for use in this system.
Conventionally, due to an increase in the number of in-vehicle devices installed in a vehicle, in-vehicle networks for transmitting and receiving information between the in-vehicle devices are becoming larger. Accordingly, in-vehicle networks are divided into multiple in-vehicle networks, and an in-vehicle relay apparatus, such as a gateway, is used so as to relay transmission and reception of information between the multiple in-vehicle networks.
For example, JP 2012-9941A discloses an in-vehicle gateway apparatus that connects a multimedia ECU (Electronic Control Unit) for controlling an in-vehicle multimedia device to a plurality of vehicle ECUs for controlling the vehicle. The in-vehicle gateway apparatus includes a storage area in which multiple pieces of vehicle-related data acquired by the vehicle ECUs are stored, and an information acquiring unit that updates the vehicle-related data stored in the storage area on a regular basis. The multimedia ECU accesses the in-vehicle gateway apparatus, and acquires the vehicle-related data stored in the storage area.
JP 2012-9941A is an example of related art.